The tragic suicide of a 26-year-old police officer from Pennsylvania, believed to be linked to complications following LASIK surgery, is not an isolated case, according to patients and physicians interviewed by The New York Post. Others have reported similar outcomes — debilitating symptoms that have altered their lives and, in some cases, led to suicidal thoughts.
While LASIK clinics often claim the procedure carries a success rate of 95% to 99%, one woman who underwent the operation in 2000 described her experience as devastating. She said it took her two years to recover from the emotional fallout and contended that many others didn’t survive the aftermath.
She alleged that more than 40 individuals have taken their own lives due to constant pain and vision issues that emerged post-surgery.
“I really didn’t want to stick around at times, but I decided I would to get the word out about how dangerous this surgery can be,” Paula Cofer, 66, of Tampa, Florida, told The Post on Wednesday.
“The LASIK lobby and the surgeons will tell you only one percent of patients have issues afterward. That’s not true. There are multiple studies that indicate otherwise.
“The percentage of those with poor outcomes are in the double digits, not one percent. And they know it,” she claimed.
LASIK, approved by the FDA in 1999, has been performed on more than 10 million individuals across the U.S., with an estimated 700,000 to 800,000 people opting for the surgery each year, according to Clinical Ophthalmology.
Cofer runs an online community called the Lasik Complications Support Group, part of a growing network of digital spaces where people share their experiences with negative outcomes from the surgery.
“If you understand Lasik and what it does to the eyes and cornea, you realize you can’t do it on a healthy eye and not expect complications,” Cofer said.
LASIK, or Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis, alters the shape of the cornea to correct vision.
“Not everyone has severe complications but a lot more people are suffering than you know. I got floaters, severe dry eyes, induced astigmatism and severe night vision problems,” said Cofer.
Ryan Kingerski, the young officer from Penn Hills Police Department who died by suicide after taking leave to undergo LASIK, reportedly struggled with a similar set of complications.
His parents, Tim and Stefanie Kingerski, described to CBS News the suffering their son endured after the procedure.
According to them, Ryan began experiencing unrelenting headaches, persistent double vision, and visual disturbances such as floaters — visual artifacts that resemble strands or cobwebs.
Their account mirrors the experience of Dan Rose, whose wife, Detroit meteorologist Jessica Starr, died by suicide in 2018 following LASIK complications.
Starr, a 35-year-old mother, took her own life just two months after the surgery, leaving behind detailed written and recorded notes.
“Prior to the procedure, Jessica was completely normal, very healthy,” Rose told WJBK in 2019. “There was no depression … no underlying issue.”
Rose explained that his wife’s suicide notes clearly indicated that the procedure and the subsequent pain were the driving factors behind her decision to end her life.
Morris Waxler, who served as an FDA advisor and led the LASIK review panel during its approval phase from 1996 to 2000, now strongly regrets the role he played in greenlighting the procedure.
“It didn’t matter what questions and concerns I had, because the surgeons were very powerful and still are,” he claimed.
Waxler told CBS in 2019 that his independent review of the available data revealed complication rates between 10% and 30%. In 2011, he petitioned the FDA to initiate a voluntary recall of the procedure.
“People come in with healthy eyes and all they need is eyeglasses. But when surgeons cut the cornea they are removing nerves and leaving the corneas with odd shapes and some patients will have intractable pain,” he added.
The FDA’s own website includes warnings about potential side effects from LASIK, such as vision loss, glare, halos, double vision, and other persistent visual problems.
The American Refractive Surgery Council, however, maintains a different view. “LASIK is safe and is one of the most studied elective surgical procedures available today … the rate of sight-threatening complications from LASIK eye surgery is estimated to be well below one percent,” it states on its website.
For Abraham Rutner, a 43-year-old electrician from Brooklyn, his post-LASIK struggles seemed hopeless — until he found a specialist who could help.
“It’s like you have a layer of oil on top of your eye — it was so hazy and terrible,” Rutner told The Post. “I couldn’t work. I couldn’t drive. I felt like I was still a young man and I lost my life.”
His turning point came when he learned about Dr. Edward Boshnick, an 84-year-old Miami optometrist who specializes in vision rehabilitation for patients suffering from complications due to LASIK and other eye trauma.
Dr. Boshnick’s practice, featured on his site Eyefreedom, fitted Rutner with scleral lenses designed to protect and restore corneas damaged by the surgery. Cofer also said the same lenses brought her some relief.
“Everyone has different problems when it comes to LASIK,” Boshnick told The Post, describing the surgery as a “BS procedure.”
“It’s the biggest scam ever put on the American public,” he said. “And it’s a multi-billion dollar business.”
{Matzav.com}